Thermal management of lithium-ion battery packs is necessary for safe operation and maximum performance. The temperature of cells within the battery pack may be monitored by an array of thermistors. In order for it to properly measure changes in the cell temperature, a thermistor must have adequate contact pressure with the battery pack cell and free of any contamination between the thermistor and the cell. Variation in material-handling and assembly processes may affect such contact pressure and contamination. A simple check of the output of the thermistors with no thermal changes within the battery pack may not properly ensure that the thermistors are interfacing with the battery cells as intended. It may be necessary to generate a specific thermal response from the battery cell and verify that the dynamic temperature-indicating output of the thermistor is within acceptable limits to ensure that the thermistors can detect the appropriate thermal change in a battery cell.
Accordingly, a battery pack thermistor test method for testing HEV/EV battery pack thermistors by thermally stressing battery pack cells in the battery pack may be desirable for some applications.